Here is my family.
You already met me. Me - (top right corner)
My sister, Penny, (to my right) is a High School Geography teacher in Virginia. She is active in her church and choir and in the Area Coin Club. She collects money from all over the world and uses it as a teaching aid to high school geography students. She's a BIG Journey fan, Beatles fan and the QUEEN of Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit! She's also a whiz at Star Wars Trivial Pursuit, since she is also a HUGE Harrison Ford fan. She finished her Masters Degree and travels as much and as often as she can.
Susie is in front. She is married to Craig. He's from Oregon. "How did a Virginia girl and an Oregonian meet," you ask? In BOSNIA, of course! They were both Journeymen missionaries. Craig was assigned to Albania and was evacuated to a "safer location" (Sarajevo) and they met. The rest is history. They attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas - very close to where I live, but then they moved to San Francisco to attend Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and to be close to Craig's family. Then they moved to North Carolina where Craig attended Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Now, they live in Virginia and are working and preparing for career missionary appointment when God's timing is right. Whew!
Jeff, is the "baby" and only boy. He is married to a wonderful girl, Melissa and has a little girl, Autumn Noel and a brand new son - Jacob. Jeff is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War and has just recently returned from Iraq where he served with the 299th Combat Engineers. They live and work in Virginia, where Jeff still serves in the Army Reserves.
Dad - My dad is retired and lives in Virginia with his wife, Shirley.
He stays busy with church, choir, mission activities, the Gideons, yard work and work around the house. He plays golf when he can and also likes to gather family geneology information and work on the family photo albums.
My mother, Diana, passed away on September 30, 1998 at the age of 57. She was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia in May of 1998. We had never even heard of this disease! It's pretty rare - maybe 2 cases per million. Her grace and faith were such a testimony to us and to our community of friends. She remained positive and said daily;
"This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it."
She told us while she was in the hospital: "I'm going home, either with you or with the Lord, but I am definitely going home." Her testimony through it all was, "I have perfect peace."
Her favorite song was "Amazing Grace" and her life truly was an example of God's grace. She was super-active in the Womens Missionary Group in our church. She was VERY involved in our lives: taught Sunday School, Mission Classes and Girl Scouts, was the neighborhood "taxi", was in the PTA, took us to swim team, softball, basketball, music lessons . . . . you name it, one of us was in it!
Our family established a special Fund for Missions in her memory. In it, we placed the gifts we received in lieu of flowers, as well as proceeds from her estate and memorial gifts. This fund will help young people receive scholarships for church camps, missions trips, missions education in the church, Baptist Student Ministries and Summer Missions Projects, and any other activity involving missions in the local church. We felt that there was no better way to honor her life than to help fund the kinds of ministries that she cared for so passionately. Tax-deductible gifts in her memory can be made directly to Salem Baptist Church, 4044 Plank Road, Fredericksburg, VA 22407
Click here to go to my Aplastic Anemia Links Page.
